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Iran’s jobless rate rose 2.5-fold in March-June: Parliament

Iran’s parliament disputes official jobless figures, saying number of inactive workers rose in first quarter.

Iranian parliament’s research center have disputed government figures on joblessness in the country, saying in a report that he number of inactive workers increased between March and June because of the spread of the coronavirus.

The report covered by the semi-official ILNA agency on Saturday said that official unemployment rate decreased in the first quarter of the Iranian calendar year beginning March 20 by 1.1 percent compared to the similar period in 2019.

However, it said the real jobless rate for the quarter could be 24 percent if the self-employed workers who had lost their jobs because of the pandemic were included in the government calculations.  

“In such circumstances, the (official) jobless rate is a completely misleading indicator when it comes to assessing the impacts of the spread of the coronavirus on the job market,” said the report.

The report further criticized government’s lack of support for businesses that avoided laying off workers during the pandemic, saying jobless claims picked up in the first quarter mainly because the government failed to implement a sound policy to protect jobs.

Official figures released by Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) shows unemployment declined in the first quarter to June 20 to 9.6 percent.

The government in March introduced an economic rescue package to help businesses affected by the pandemic. The emergency funding included cheap loans amounting to 1,000 trillion rials ($5 billion at the then exchange rate) to help businesses recover from more than a month of pandemic-related restrictions and closures.

That has come on top of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for unemployment benefits and other direct payments to households to cushion the economy against the disease.


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